


The Storm Gathers

by DarkKnightDan



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Grief/Mourning, Hurt, Implied Relationships, Loss, Takes place after before the storm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-23
Updated: 2017-12-23
Packaged: 2019-02-19 06:09:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13117671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkKnightDan/pseuds/DarkKnightDan
Summary: Takes place proceeding Before the Storm but before Life is Strange.One-Shot: Chloe Price had it all, a ride, a sweet hangout, and an awesome girlfriend. It was nearing the end of Rachel’s senior year at Blackwell, and Chloe was excited to finally be able to leave Arcadia Bay with Rachel Amber, so that they could start over somewhere else.But life isn’t always fair, and not all stories have happy endings.





	The Storm Gathers

There were so many ways that Chloe had pictured this day going. Spending time at the Junkyard, the Overlook, her house, or her girlfriend’s, but they had all involved a common factor, her girlfriend. Chloe was parked in her normal spot outside of Blackwell Academy when Rachel came out the door and ran up to the beat-up old truck that had become their escape mechanism whenever they wanted to get somewhere. Rachel didn’t look down or anything, but when she threw her bag into the car, which was shortly followed by Rachel herself, the girl announced that she had studying and a project to do.

“Would this be the same project and studying you were talking about last night?” The Blue haired girl questioned her girlfriend as she put the truck into drive and pulled away from Blackwell. 

“So you were listening.” Rachel teased, having thought Chloe was too lost in working on this rust bucket the night previous to actually listen to her concerns about tests and the like. When Chloe turned a questioning look in her direction, Rachel raised her hands with a chuckle. “Kidding Price, kidding.” Chloe rolled her eyes at the assertion before she turned her attention back to the road.

“Your house or mine, then?” Either one would work for Chloe, she figured she could just hang out until Rachel figured out whatever the hell she was working on, she’d been able to teach Chloe the slightest bit of patience over their time together. “Don’t matter to me.” She informed the blonde.

“Actually Chloe, I think I need to be alone. I really need to get this stuff done, and well, you know that I can’t work with you around.” Rachel felt bad for saying it, and Chloe was offended by the slight, but the both of them had to admit that there was truth in the statement. 

“What if I just stay quiet in the corner, or whatever, until you finish?” Chloe cast a smile in Rachel’s direction. A small one, one that asked Rachel to just please let her stick around for the day. Chloe hated to admit it, but she’d gotten a bit too attached to Rachel Amber. When it came to spending time alone, she really didn’t know what to do. Most of the time while Rachel was at school was spent getting high or working on her truck, sometimes both. Usually both. 

“Chloe...” Rachel trailed off when she saw that hurt expression in her girlfriend’s eyes. “Look, why don’t I just call you tonight when I finish? You can get me then we can do something, alright? That way I can get my stuff done, and you can work on the truck or whatever, right? You said there was an issue with something yesterday.”

“The spark plug.” Chloe corrected. “And I got that fixed, along with a few other things, while you were at school today.” She said it in a matter-of-fact tone, like she was proud of herself for actually having done such a great feat during Rachel’s time in school. 

“Well, you can draw or something until I finish with my work, right? Really, I should be finished around eight or nine, then we can do something.” Chloe wanted to say something back, but managed to bite her tongue before she pushed the issue further. Rachel was making a bad habit of correcting some of her less desirable qualities, the backtalk being one of them. 

“Yeah, sure, that’s fine.” Chloe sounded less than convincing, but Rachel went along with it anyway. Scratch that, she reached over and put a hand on Chloe’s shoulder when they got to one of Arcadia Bay’s few stoplights. The blue haired girl turned to face her girlfriend, who flashed her an affectionate smile. 

“I love you Chloe, you know that right?” The question, accompanied by the ever doubted assertion, caused a slight tint of blood red to rise in Chloe’s cheeks before she looked away from Rachel. 

“Yeah,” even Chloe detected how insincere that answer seemed the moment she said it. “Of course I know that.” She accented this answer with a smile that Rachel took as genuine, one Chloe specifically used for that hope. Rachel nodded to confirm that Chloe had convinced her, and the driver turned her attention back to the road. 

Rachel’s house wasn’t far from where they had stopped. They managed to get there within a few minutes. Rachel thought about inviting Chloe in just to talk to her mom, Rose, she reminded herself, for just awhile. That thought was dashed, however, by the knowledge that Rose would either tie Chloe up, or she’d have to force Chloe out. A tiny smile rose on Rachel’s lips at the thought. Her girlfriend wasn’t exactly the best at listening when it came to leaving the house. Her mind wandered back to dozens of nights when Rachel had to answer Chloe’s mom because her girlfriend was refusing to do so. 

“I’ll see you later Price.” Rachel leaned over and planted a gentle kiss on Chloe’s cheek while easing the truck’s door open with her foot. “Go have fun, I’ll call you when I’m done with Hell.” There was a moment of silence before Rachel put her hand on Chloe’s. “I love you.”

“You too.” She wanted to reciprocate the words themselves, but even after all this time she found it hard to do so. There was a momentary pause before Rachel backed out of the truck and closed the door behind her. There was a moment as Chloe watched her girlfriend walk up to the house that she felt dread beginning to rise somewhere in her stomach, but she quickly dispelled it. Just one of her stupid feelings.   
**********  
The junkyard had offered respite enough, the shack that Chloe and Rachel had claimed as their little hideaway offered ample entertainment, from the various music Chloe had stashed there to the drawing pads that the both of them had left scattered about at one point or another. Rachel had been trying to get her to stop with the graffiti ever since her freshman year, soon after the two of them had started dating. 

She’d always said it was a waste of her talent, or something. 

So, Chloe had taken up drawing to a full extent, filling pads upon pads with sketches and doodles that she worked on during times like this, when Rachel needed to get work done or was at school. A quick glance to the side of the room revealed the various pads stacked there like photo albums, so Rachel or Chloe could skim through them whenever they were searching for tattoo designs, or inspiration for one. 

Chloe took a break from her current drawing, and turned on her phone to see that it was approaching eight at night. The sun had set near-completely, but the faintest glimmer of dying orange still crossed the junkyard. August sure was a fun time, Chloe mused to herself at the thought of how hot it had been earlier in the day. Taking note that Rachel should have called her by now, Chloe decided to take the initiative. Thankfully, Rachel’s number was the first on speed dial. 

Chloe sat, cross-legged, as she waited for the phone to connect. One ring, two, three, four. Voicemail. Chloe looked at the thing with a raised brow. It was rare for Rachel to miss a call. “Maybe she just got too stuck up in studying, forgot to charge it.” Chloe murmured to herself, though she wasn’t even fully convinced of that theory. She did trust Rachel though, so she just put her phone back down next to her and continued drawing in order to lessen the nerves that were swiftly building inside of her.

This worked, for all of fifteen minutes. Then Chloe’s phone was right back in her hand. She had already stood up and was walking toward her truck, which had been parked just a few feet away. Her hands were shaking as she heard the phone ring once, twice, three, four times, and then go to voicemail. 

“Rachel, please pick up.” Chloe said as she got into the truck. Three years she had known Rachel Amber, nearly two and a half of those years they had been together. She had never missed a call, let alone two. Without even thinking of what she was going to do when she got to Rachel’s house, she headed that way. Though she was pushing fifteen over the speed limit the whole way Chloe still felt like she wasn’t going fast enough. Numerous scenarios ran through her mind as she drove. Had someone broken into the house? Had Rachel hurt herself somehow? Something worse? These thoughts only put Chloe at risk of losing her license. 

The Amber house was lit up bright as a Christmas tree when Chloe pulled up, and when she jumped out she took note that both of Rachel’s parents’ cars were in the driveway, eliminating one of the scenarios that Chloe had thought through on the way over. She moved at a near sprint to the door and knocked rapidly. There was a moment where Chloe stood there with her hands in her pockets, quickly shifting her weight from one foot to the other and back, before Rachel’s mother opened the door. The woman started to smile before the expression quickly vanished.

“Chloe? Are you okay?”

“Where’s Rachel?” Chloe didn’t waste a second before asking the question, causing Rose to cock both her head and her brows. Then she said something that made the blood run cold in Chloe’s veins.

“We thought she was with you.” Without another moment’s hesitation, Chloe moved past Rose, muttering a quick apology as she made her way to the stairs that led up to Rachel’s room. She took the stairs three at a time, the whole way her ears were straining for any faint indication of the music that would usually come from Rachel’s room. 

Her door was unlocked, and opened easily when Chloe put her shoulder to it. No music, no lights on in the room, and definitely no Rachel. Chloe swept her eyes around the room, as though her girlfriend would just stand up with a goofy smile and announce that this was all an intricate prank. 

Then Chloe’s eyes fell on the window, wide open. She moved to it, and searched for any indication that Rachel might have left through it recently. Unfortunately she didn’t find any, but deduced that Rachel must have snuck out. The question still remained, though. Where did she go, and why?

When Chloe turned back toward the door she found Rose standing there with a stunned expression written on her face, as though Chloe’s actions and questions had just dawned on her.

Rachel was gone.   
************  
“Goddamnit!” Chloe slammed her fists against the edges of her steering wheel, then repeated the action two, three times. Tears were quickly rising in her eyes after she’d allowed herself to guide the truck over to the side of the road. She’d been risking her luck all night driving like this, and she felt like it was swiftly draining. 

She’d been all over Arcadia Bay, asked everyone who knew Rachel Amber if they’d seen her. All of their old spots, all of the older spots, places they hadn’t gone since Rachel was a sophomore. Still Rachel was nowhere to be found. It was like she had disappeared off of the face of the Earth, just poof, like magic. 

“Where are you?” Chloe whimpered as she put her head against the steering wheel, hands clenched into tights fists squeezing the steering wheel as she asked the question to nobody. She reached to her phone, stuck into the console of the truck, and flipped it open. Twenty calls, twenty goddamn calls she had thrown Rachel’s way, eighty times she had heard that damn ringing tone, and twenty times she’d felt even more lost than the call before that one. 

One more, Chloe assured herself half-heartedly. She’ll answer this one, she’s been out of service, out in the Overlook or something, she caught a train, that has to be it. This time. Chloe resolved as she pressed the call button that she would drive all the way to goddamn Seattle and LA just to check if Rachel was there, if it came down to if. Anywhere that she had mentioned, even in passing. 

As that tone buzzed in her ear, Chloe was reminded of something else Rachel had said, a long time ago. The words hadn’t phased her that much then, she had barely known Rachel, Hell they had only actually known each other for a grand total of about a day. Now, those words tore her heart open at the thought of them.

“Don’t be surprised if one day I’m just out of here.” Those words rang in Chloe’s head as she lowered her phone, they resonated like a church bell, over and over again as Chloe lost her grip on her phone. Her hands shook, and Chloe felt her breath quicken as tears built quickly in her eyes.

No, no, no, no. Right before she had gotten out of the car, Rachel had assured Chloe that she loved her, that she really did. That was what the logical part of Chloe’s brain was trying to say, the one that liked science and understood actual logical conclusion. Unfortunately, this brain was countered by the Chloe that had been abandoned when she needed someone else most, and had lost someone near and dear to her. 

Rachel never loved you, that part of her brain said. She never did, it was all just a game, and you fell for it. She was just an actor, and a liar by connection. You never had anything with her. These thoughts brought Chloe scrambling out of the truck as it felt like the air had suddenly grown stale, unwelcoming. She could feel her tears falling in twin streams down her face, carving red paths that were all too visible. 

Her breathing was uneven, and this wasn’t helped as Chloe eased herself into a sitting position next to the truck. She heard her phone buzz from inside the truck and, without thinking, threw it across the highway that was in front of her. The illogical part of her brain was already winning her over, and she wasn’t sure that she even wanted to know if it was Rachel trying to call her. Chloe cradled her head in her arms and rested it on her knees as she sobbed between them, trying to shield her face from the world. 

“Goddamnit Rachel, Goddamnit.” She muttered over and over again, like just saying the girl’s name might bring her back to the girl on the side of the road. She remembered the last time she had been on the side of the road like this, and had spoken with a ghost. What she wouldn’t have given to have her dad with her right now. 

Instead, Chloe just slowly pushed herself off of the ground. She had to know it if was Rachel who had called her, even if the girl had abandoned her she had to know that Rachel was okay, that she was alive. That, at least, would be something. She walked on shaky legs across the too-dark highway, searching for her phone in the grass. Fortunately, it had flipped open upon landing, and was still casting a glow from its tiny screen. 

Chloe picked her phone up as sobs still tore through her body, causing the screen to blur as she tried to focus on it. When she wiped her eyes she felt her heart drop further. It wasn’t Rachel trying to get a hold of her, it was Mom. With a yell of frustration, Chloe through the phone down in the grass and slid to her knees, head now in her hands again. 

“Please Rachel, please, please. Don’t do this. I need you.”


End file.
